Waking up alone

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2003)

From the director of Trainspotting and the Beach, 28 days later is a surprising horror/thriller that reminds me of the George A.Romero zombie-trilogy in more than one way. An animalrightsgroup release test-monkeys from a laboratory where the scientists have turned the monkeys into a horrible spreader of a deadly, aggressive virus named Rage. Once released the disease wipes out most of human kind in a matter of weeks. A bicycle courier who wakes up in the hospital after being unconscious for 28 days after an accident wakes up from coma and finds himself in London all by himself, having to wake up to the reality that he now must face a brutal world where most humans are dead or have become infected with Rage and he will have to fight to survive, or run for his life together with the few other survivors he meets on his way. Directed with a lot of energy and excellent acting as well as outstanding photography and great musical sequences makes one forgive the slightly disappointing developing storyline. Influences from Steven King's the Stand and the George Romero zombie movies are put to good use as the movie is at times disturbingly frightening. The infected are not sluggish zombies and they would scare the living daylights out of you when you'd run into them. Unconventional and highly entertaining. 9 out of 10 for me.